Visitors were evacuated shortly after 11am due to security concerns on Liberty Island. Statue Cruises sent their ships to move people off the island, as NYPD and U.S. Coast Guard vessels arrived and established a 1000-foot security zone around the island. The FDNY and other local fire departments staged their boats as well and the NYPD Bomb Squad was ferried to the Statue to investigate.

According to the National Park Service, a 911 caller had threatened to blow up the statue and K9 units detected an area of interest by the lockers said NYPD. A sweep of the island turned up negative and visitors will be able to return to the island on Saturday. The last time Liberty Island was closed to the public was after Hurricane Sandy caused major damage.

Thick fog engulfed the Verrazano Bridge as we left New York Harbor heading east for a job off Atlantic Beach. Running solely by instruments, we navigated to East Rockaway inlet in about an hour, when a Mayday broadcast came across the VHF radio at 16:20:

“MAYDAY. This is the ‘Sea Lion’. We’re sinking. Men in the Water.Water in the wheelhouse. This is our last transmission. We’re going down.”

The broadcast was promptly followed by the US Coast Guard relaying the Mayday and a position of N43.32.xxx, W073.46.177.

I wrote down the numbers and plotted the coordinates. Surprisingly the location showed close to Lake Champlain in upstate New York, about 180 miles to the north, making it unlikely that I was able to hear the actual radio transmission from the ‘Sea Lion’ so clearly. I deemed the given coordinates as improbable and started working the on-board navigation system pulling up a list of close-by ships. Most commercial vessels are outfitted with an AIS transceiver as part of an automated tracking and collision-avoidance system, and chances were that she was still transmitting.

There she was! SEA LION — right on top of that list with a position only about two nautical miles to the south. Putting down the throttle, we made it to the scene in just a few minutes, running 30+ knots in 6-foot seas and less than 200 feet visibility.

The Pilot boat was able to pick three crewmembers out of the water, before being prop-fouled by a rope and unable to reach the sinking tug.There were all sorts of lines, plastic, oil, wood, and other detritus floating everywhere around us.

We spotted a fourth crewmember clinging to the bow of the sinking vessel. He appeared injured and probably had less than a minute before the boat completely went under. I maneuvered closer from the upwind side and nosed my boat against the hull of the tug. Only about three feet of the ships bow were still showing above the waterline.

He attempted to leap towards us just as the last pockets of air escaped from the tug, erupting like a whale’s blowhole as she sank to the bottom in a boil. We were able to quickly pull him out of the cold water. The Coast Guard and NYPD had vessels en route to the scene, so we transferred the victim to the Pilot boat where the injuries could be better assessed and he be kept warm until medics arrived. Unfortunately the helicopters were unavailable to air-lift the victims because of the dense fog.